Jean-Paul Sartre Stuart Gilbert Lionel Abel

In these four plays, Jean Paul Sartre, the great existentialist novelist and philosopher, displays his mastery of drama NO EXIT is an unforgettable portrayal of hell THE FLIES is a modern reworking of the Electra Orestes story DIRTY HANDS is about a young intellectual torn between theory and praxis THE RESPECTFUL PROSTITUTE is an attack on American racism.

Recent Comments "No Exit and Three Other Plays"

Hell is not other people. Hell is any holiday dinner with relatives.Fashionable in the 50s, and still required reading in prep schools and many colleges, Sartre's play - once ventilated - is a discursive product of Dada and Existentialism mixed with Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and a lot of Pernod. In the mid-40s it made him the darling of theboozoisiein Montparnasse. Actually, he was inspired by Wedekind and Strindberg. An interesting thinker, Sarte here overlooks his own contradictions : though each [...]

I am surprised no one said much about the piece "Dirty Hands" since it was terribly interesting and took up a great deal of this book. Though I love No exit and think that the punch line was both clever and well developed I think that Dirty Hands was by far a more enjoyable work. It was extremely clever, the wit was harsh. The characters manipulative and yet humorously negatable. The deep political messages, the thoughts surrounding "purity of political ideals". For some reason I can just better [...]

“Hell is other people.” What if hell is not an inferno but being trapped in a room with people who judge and condemn you? In Sartre’s play No Exit, three condemned souls must stay with each other for all eternity, watching, condemning, torturing one another. Garcin seeks understanding from Inez for deserting the army but only receives her judgment. Estelle, who killed her newborn baby and caused her lover to commit suicide, seeks Garcin’s affection to define who she is, but only receives [...]

Sartre has very good ideas. I love reading Theatre of the Absurd. Existence precedes essence. Three damned souls are brought to hell by a mysterious valet, but it's not what they expected. Sartre depicts hell as a Second Empire style room in bad taste, not fire and torture devices. I love this idea!!! Garcin, Inez, and Estelle torture each other with judgement since they have nothing in common, and they are unlikeable. "Hell is other people" means that judgement is eternal punishment. I found it [...]

A brief one-act that seems much longer than it really is. Alternately horrible and funny, it's Sartre's take on Hell, which can be described as such: a small hotel room with no windows or mirrors, a door that is usually locked, and three couches. Three people - Garcin, Ines, and Estelle - are all brought to this room by what I can only guess is a bellboy. (I read this in French, so forgive any factual errors that I missed as a reult of that) Everyone keeps asking, "Where's the torturer?" because [...]

For me, this little collection gets by purely on the strength of the title play alone. No Exit is a terrific little work. The concept is clever and simple, and the execution first-rate. And in addition to being impressed by Sartre’s abilities as a playwright, I was also surprised that the message wasn’t the vague banality I had expected it to be. As everyone knows, this play ends with a punchline: hell is other people. Now, I had expected this to mean simply that being around other people is [...]

Jean Paul Sartre uses hell for the setting of his existentially significant work, No Exit. While Sartre is an atheist, he uses a place that is fundamentally connected to Christian beliefs. Yet Sartre's hell is vastly dissimilar to the Christian conception of hell, and makes no reference to a God or Satan. Ultimately, the hell in No Exit serves the same purpose as a Christian hell: to torment and torture. The methods used are different, but the result is the same. In fact, Sartre's hell is more i [...]

I guess I’m in the midst of an existential questioning. Then I picked up "No Exit” and Three Other Plays, and it became a full-blown crisis. I would walk to my neighbor and ask him, “Do you think I’m useless? Am I a bad person? What do I stand for? What is the purpose of all this?” Poor guy.So this is hell. I’d never have believed it. You remember all we were told about the torture-chambers, the fire and brimstone, the ‘burning marl.’ Old wives’ tales! There’s no need for red [...]

Sartre was marginally popular with some high school friends, particularly his novel, Nausea, and play, No Exit. I started the former at a boring party at Bill Causer's home at the Park Ridge School for Girls one night, but didn't get far. I didn't relate to the paranoid attitude and put it down. Years later, his Being and Nothingness was assigned--same attitude, but this time an obligation to complete the thing.Some time towards the end of high school I gave Sartre another chance. I'd enjoyed Ca [...]

I only read "No Exit", as intended. An allegory for fascism? Must be there somewhere, but I don't get it. What I do see it as an allegory, I guess, or at least an illustration, for how we say we want to escape from the emotional torment of our decisions, preferring the physical torment of "racks and prongs and garrotes", but really we want to stay in that room, with our torment, because it makes us feel alive. In emotional masochism, there is no exit as satisfying as a locked door.

When a friend asked if I had seen the play or the movie based on Sartre's "No Exit", my curiosity was piqued. I searched online and found a version I could read. In this brief one-act play, Sartre illuminates the human condition and the consequences of behavior. Actions often taken lightly, reverberate and leave disaster in their wake. The three main characters are dead. In life, they were each, in their own way, responsible for a tragic ending. They are now in Hell, where they are forced to exp [...]

I wish I had years and years left of college so I could have fit in all the classes I could dream of. If I did, I would have taken an course in existentialism. Unfortunately it was only ever briefly touched on in one philosophy class, but the brief mention was enough to ignite an interest that I was free to pursue on my own. I would recommend that anyone who finds comfort in exitentialism, like myself, read NO Exit. The line "Hell is other people" might be one of my favorite mantras.Why I find i [...]

I don't know what made me buy this book. It isn't like anything I'd ever want to read, so why the ridiculous curiosity? Well, I finished 'No Exit' and didn't feel like reading the three other plays (although I'm willing to wait some time and come back to it.) The whole thing felt like walking knee-deep in mud.

My first time reading anything of Satre's. I had high expectations which he somehow succeeded.Also the collection is available for free online at; webchive/web/201311260No Exit.The book's titular play and one of Sartre's most famous. The character dynamic was certainly interesting, but it seemed to drone on just a little. It's one of his most famous, but frankly it was my least favorite of the collection.The FliesA clever rework of the Greek myth. It reads like an epic tragedy, but with plenty o [...]

Huis Clos and Other Plays holds three plays: The Respectable Prostitute, Lucifer and the Lord, and Huis Clos.The Respectable Prostitute was interesting, though a bit simplistic. Sartre is very much into ethical responsibility, and the prostitute in this play only wants to do the right thing. In true essentialist fashion she is faced with an impossible situation which has no "good answer", and the end result is pretty depressing.Speaking of depressing, next up is Lucifer and the Lord. This play i [...]

More an illustration of Existentialist concepts than a true drama; still the one-act play about 2 women and a man in hell, coming to terms with their own lack of self concept, or their dependency on others for a sense of self is intellectually interesting (and very quick read). Existentialism was always so empowering to me, but in this play, it seems more nihilistic or fatalistic than I recall. And the fact that it takes place in hell, after the three main characters have died, strikes me as mor [...]

The second book I read is No Exit by Jean Paul Satre. I thought this book was really psychological and reminded me of a lot of things. In the book 3 people were brought to this place where there was thing but them. The theme of the book was to be yourself and not let anyone judge you. People do not make who you are, you are yourself. The 3 protagonists were unable to get pass people’s opinions so they were unable to leave. In life I think everyone cares about what others think of them. The onl [...]

These plays were my first encounter with Sartre’s own work, rather than just hearing about his ideas secondhand. The latter two are still enjoyable, but ‘No Exit’ and ‘The Flies’ are both just absolutely incredible. His characters are all witty, insightful, and deeply flawed and they all find themselves in totally tragic, claustrophobic situations—clearly, the guy understands what makes for good drama. His own wisdom and curiosity shines through all the plays too. Existentialism, jus [...]

This is a nice compilation of important plays by Sartre.No Exit is a nicely accessible work in which Sartre examines the nature of self identity. Three people sent to either purgatory or hell, whichever best fits your idea. It is a clever use of implotment and dialogue to reveal character. Perhaps a bit too obvious, but for drama such is how the point gets across. I found Sartre's attempt to examine ethics interesting. I am not sure when this work was produced relative to Sartre's career, but he [...]

I have a special affection for NO EXIT because, along with THE STRANGER and IRRATIONAL MAN, it was my introduction to existentialism, the very cool "philosophical attitude" that seemed to fit me as well as my Levi 501s. The ingenious set-up of 3 mismatched people in a stark room, offering no comfort or companionship, but only laying their respective trips on one another seemed to represent most of the relationships I had and saw around me--and I was only in my teens! "Hell is other people" could [...]

Four plays: "No Exit," translated by S. Gilbert. Three strangers, locked in a room. Can't really say anything about this brilliant allegory without revealing too much. It should be very widely read."The Flies," translated by S. Gilbert. A reworking of the Orestes/Electra story. I liked it better than Euripides'. Sartre made the characters multi-faceted and real; he also added Zeus as an adversary of Orestes who feeds on remorse. Orestes' refusing to repudiate his crime, create his own freedom an [...]

I found this collection on sale at a bookstore that was going out of business, and I've seen plenty of cultural references to No Exit, so I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to read the play for myself. I expected this collection to be pretentious, but I was pleasantly surprised to find four plays that explore philosophical issues in the context of stories that pulse with vitality.The title play is clearly the most effective, as three cruel and funny and needy and undeniably Human cha [...]

No Exit: Fantastic. The idea of slow mental torture in Hell is a great concept to play off of. It places emphasis on the idea that we are not a body, but an idea. An idea composed of our own thoughts and the thoughts of others about ourselves. Dirty Hands: A great piece about regret, reflection, purpose, loyalty, and self-respect. Hugo may have committed a political assassination and mad it look like a crime of passion, but it really was a crime of passion. He loved Hœderer. Also, there are man [...]

I read these plays a long time ago, and they played a formative role in my early leanings towards existentialism (encouraged by my father, of course). Re-reading them today, they feel dated in some ways, less compelling - maybe because the emotional complexity that allowed Sartre to write angry, disenchanted, and violent characters exists far more in our popular culture than it did when I was in my teens. Maybe I’m just tired of existentialism and the anti-hero in general, I’m not sure. Trag [...]

I was on the fence with this collection of plays. I did like No Exit, that was my favourite; I would have given that one 5 out of 5 for sure. I loved the depiction of hell, no physical torture, no flames, just being trapped in a room with two other disagreeable people for eternity, that would be torturous. The Flies was the next one I like but that would have been more a 4 out of 5, it dragged on in some parts but I liked the modern reworking of the Electra-Orestes story. I didn't like Dirty Han [...]

I must admit it has been a while since I've read No Exit and I only did so because I took a drama class when completing my English degree not because I loved drama but because it was less work to read a lot of plays vs. a lot of novels (also why I read a lot of poetry). However, I am so happy I did read Sartre because he introduced me to existentialism (and thus gave a name to my hitherto unnamed angst).I think No Exit is a nice intro to existentialist thought and I often think of the scene wher [...]